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Across the Fence:  The Secret Life of -Farm Girl - Bee Keepers  |
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Kathy A.
True Blue Farmgirl
116 Posts
Kathy
Utah
USA
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 Posted - Aug 25 2004 : 07:50:09 AM
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Hello Everyone , Is there anyone out there reading the forum, who is also a Bee keeper? There is a long chat in the reading room, about the book "The Secret life of Bees" A very entertaining and interesting read. It has rekindled my passion for bee keeping. I am not exactly a bee keeper, more like - the assistant to the bee keeper- but, at one time my husband and I had 200 hives which kept us extremely busy. We are now planning a move to a more nothern cooler climate, and when we do I'll have bees on a much smaller scale maybe not more than 3 or 4 hives. I'd like to chat with other lady bee keepers and I especially need to learn what to do to keep them as organic as possible. Bees are suseptible to disease and mites, and location is a big issue. Of course it's all worth the effort. The Author of the book did an excellent job on researching bee lore, and fact, it's full of fascinating information even if you never intend to get near a hive. I've started my bees wax candle production, and when I get back to it I'll be using low tech (hand crank) equipment, this time it will be more for fun and passion than for profit. Are there others on the forum who have a mild to extreme interest in BEES?
Farmgirl/gardener-Potter/Poet |
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Kathy A.
True Blue Farmgirl
116 Posts
Kathy
Utah
USA
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Posted - Aug 27 2004 : 2:42:05 PM
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Hi Clare, Thanks for your reply, About 2 hours after I posted, my husband walked in with the mail it included the Handful issue!! I was pleased and surprised to see the article on Bees at Mary Janes Farm, hope they make it a regular feature in future magazines. The topic of bees and bee keeping is so fascinating, Have you read that book? It's really a good summer read. I don't think there is another insect or animal that gives so many products, and has such an interesting social structure in the animal/insect kingdom. Bees wax alone must have dozens of uses when used with other ingredients and honey can take on the flavors of the flowers the nectar was gathered from. Some of the tastiest honey I ever bought came from the flowers of poision oak. We harvested dandelion honey one year and it was bright yellow just like the flower, it had a sweet honey flavor with a slight dandelion fragrance. We sold Bee pollen, used propolis for colds and sore throats, I always wanted to harvest royal jelly and I thought my husband would be really good at raising queens, this is a little more difficult but may be worth the effort. Anyway Bee keeping will be- back to the future- for me. We have no definite plans for our move North, but we spent several weeks this summer looking at areas in Oregon, Washington and Idaho we were raised in southeast Idaho we may land there, The soil is rich ,volcanic earth and organic garden/farming is at the top of the list with Bee keeping second. Sooo many possibilities, hope I haven't carried on to long. This forum has produced a surprising variety of interesting topics thanks to you and some of the others who are regular posters, I appreciate you all!!
Farmgirl/gardener-Potter/Poet |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11005 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
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Posted - Aug 27 2004 : 3:53:43 PM
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I find bees so interesting! I sure wish I could keep bees..I am, however, very very allergic to their stings..have to carry and epi-pen and all. I hate that. I love to read about them. I have a freind here in town who is just getting started in bee keeping. Lucky!!
I forget exactly where in Utah you are Kathy...was it Provo? Not far from me..well, an hour and 1/2. Tell me about your pottery!!
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
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LadyCrystal
True Blue Farmgirl
593 Posts
Alicia
Rhode Island
USA
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Posted - Aug 27 2004 : 5:18:52 PM
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I am allergic too,so it is none for me either but I wish I could because I love honey.
Royal Jelly,is that suppose to be great for the skin?
Alicia
Follow your dreams |
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Kathy A.
True Blue Farmgirl
116 Posts
Kathy
Utah
USA
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Posted - Aug 29 2004 : 08:48:28 AM
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Hello Alicia and Jenny, Allergys to bee stings are difinitely a serious problem. My Daughter developed allergys after several years, I've read in the bee journals that sometimes a family member will become allergic even if they are not involved in the process.
Royal Jelly is suppose to be extremely good for the skin and is in some cosmetic products. After I learned what was involved in harvesting it, how small the quantities are and how manipulative it is to the whole colony I changed my mind.
I hope to learn more, especially about how to be more organic with Bee keeping. There are people who are raising queens and brood that are not as suseptible to disease. That would probably be the place to start. Do you cook with honey? I'm not really a very good cook but my recipes I use honey in always seem to turn out better. |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11005 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
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Posted - Aug 29 2004 : 4:55:28 PM
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I love to cook with honey, and always store a years supply. There is alot of local honey here and I need to try that..since we have lived here I have just been using what I had from before. I han't tried canning fruit using honey instead of sugar..but would like to..has anyone done this?
I had a jar of lavender honey one time years ago where they infused the little jar of honey with fresh lavender (had a sprig still in it) and have always meant to do that, since I have lavender growing. It was WONDERFUL!
I have a friend who swore by royal jelly, but I have never tried it.
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
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n/a
deleted
64 Posts
Dave
Vestal
NY
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Posted - Aug 29 2004 : 5:09:10 PM
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| Love Honey also, but am very allergic to bee stings. Was stung once on my left hand, and at the time was 6' 2" and 128 lbs. The hand swelled so each finger appeared like it belonged to a 350 lb man, up to the wrist, been bee-wary since. Does not stop me from planting lots of bee-attracting flowers though (smile).......Dave T |
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Kathy A.
True Blue Farmgirl
116 Posts
Kathy
Utah
USA
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Posted - Aug 31 2004 : 11:52:56 AM
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Hi Jenny, I can/bottle fruit with a little honey about 1 tablespoon per quart jar, but if you use a lot of honey it tends to change the flavor of the fruit, not quite so fruity more like honey water. so if you like it really sweet use sugar. I like the idea of lavendar infused honey I'm going to try that. Lavendar is near the top of my list of most useful herbs I absolutely love it.
Dave, Welcome to the forum I enjoyed reading about your chickens and geraniums. I hope you feel at home here, because you fit right in! |
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Eileen
True Blue Farmgirl
1197 Posts
Eileen
USA
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Posted - Sep 09 2004 : 1:59:28 PM
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Hi Kathy and all you would be and lovers of bees and bee keepers.
We started bee keeping this spring with 3 hives. Just to see if we would really enjoy the process. We have received a lot of enjoyment watching our hives grow from just the few hundred that come in the bee orders to the many thousands that eventually fill up the hives. Neither my husband nor I have ever been around bee keepers before but a suggestion from the local tree expert in the area got us excited about attempting it. We have a small 5 acre place outside the little town of Quilcene in Washington state. It is gray and rainy a good deal of the year because of the proximity to the Olympic mountains. We are in the foothills. We face south and east. Our property naturally tends toward going back to nature so to speak and we battled blackberry vines for a number of years hoping to somehow eradicate them so we could do something better with the land. There is nothing natural out there that we have found that will kill these 30 year or more old vines with trunks about 6 inches across. Dig them up and you leave a small piece of root that will become a huge trellising vine the following year as if you had fertilised it! The tree man gave us the idea of bees because blackberry honey is so very highly prized in foreign countries. He thought that with all the berries and all the other naturally occuring food needs of the bees that we have here we were prime for a big bee business. Al Steadman who has a huge and thriving bee keeping business helped us to get started and says that we could probably go for as many as 30 hives on our property and more if we have friends and neighbors who would be willing to allow us to house them on their small farms. We are also trying to go organic but have been told that there is really no way to go totally organic with bees anymore, part of the reason for this is that bees forage for a square mile from their hives in all directions and we have no way of knowing where all of the necter and pollen that they gather comes from. The highways and many nearby farms or homes may use pesticides and other non-organic sprays that will become incorporated into the honey. Still we are doing what we can. We will be making a decision about the mites and other diseases very soon. The garden man does not dust his bees but also lost one of his hives last year. I am very excited about this part of our on going adventure in becoming good stewards of our little piece of paradise.
Eileen
songbird |
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cecelia
True Blue Farmgirl
497 Posts
cecelia
new york
USA
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Posted - Sep 10 2004 : 12:18:33 PM
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Just getting around to reading this section. I finally got back to walking at the nature preserve where I volunteer, just about 1 hours ago. I usually don't go at that time of day (1 PM) because I don't like the heat, but I figured it was now or much later in the week or month, the way Sept. is shaping up. Anyway, I found a beetree in the woods! An entire swarm of bees have taken over one of the dead trees and have a nest in a hollow made probably by a pileated woodpecker. As much as I love honey I'm not about to mess with this!
Cecelia
ce's farm |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
1597 Posts
Kim
Sycamore
Il
USA
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Posted - Sep 10 2004 : 3:41:38 PM
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Isn't it interesting though? I remember at a family reunion a swarm gathered into the corner of the house along the soffit of the roof. It looked a like a huge moving basket!
farmgirl@heart
Longaberger Lover and all things antique |
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Kathy A.
True Blue Farmgirl
116 Posts
Kathy
Utah
USA
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Posted - Sep 12 2004 : 08:32:43 AM
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Hello Everyone,
Eileen, I was glad to read about your place and your Bees I can tell by your other posts you have a wonderful understanding and appreciation of your place. The Blackberries sound delicious even though they are a problem, I'm so glad you were not able to get rid of all of them and eventually got Bees. Next time I'm in the nothwest corner I'm going to try and find blackberry honey. Maybe someday you will have enough to sell. Bee forage is abundant at your place, if you can support 30 hives. One reason we got out of the Bee business is that we were moving them from yard to yard and it became an awesome task we had 2 ways to go, either scale back to what we could use, or go larger and buy equipment to move them- a tractor/loader and put them on pallets ect. Anyway I would like to have just 3 or 4 hives as you do. Your climate must also be great for bees they don't like rain but over cast is okay and if the moisture and rain fall is enough to keep things blooming I'm sure they are out working away. You are so right about how far they forage and how difficult it would be to be isolated enough to get totally organic. Maybe some areas of Canada? I've read that they really thrive on the fireweed bloom there. I keep thinking about your Blackberries, do you plan to market items like Blackberry jam Blackberry Honey, Blackberry scented bees wax candles? mmmmmmmm Blackberry pie! I really enjoy your posts keep us updated. Kathy
Cecelia, What a chance happening to find a BEE TREE!! It reminded me of the bee charmer in the movie-Green Fried Tomatoes. Just to hear the Buzzz and smell the fragrance as you walked by must have been one of those moments when you -felt- in touch and somehow connected with nature. we are indeed connected all the time but the ahh haa moments are like a bit of magic.
Hi Kim, to see a swarm, for the first time can be intimidating, until you realize they are not angry or possessed just looking for a new, less crowded, home. Sometimes they take off in a swirling mass 2 or 3 times before they decided to move into someones attic or find a bee tree to live in. We always kept bee veils and an extra box in the back of the pick up in case we saw them on the go, and could possibly entice them to move into our box so we could take them home. When the swarm lands it does look like a moving basket. I hadn't thought of that before.
Farmgirl/gardener-Potter/Poet |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
1597 Posts
Kim
Sycamore
Il
USA
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Posted - Sep 12 2004 : 10:58:04 AM
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Yes, it was quite fasinating! And intimidating to me. As I child I ALWAYS managed to get at least 2-3 bees stings every summr. I awlays stepped on them, by accident. So I am slightly afraid of them, though not allergic.
I read The Secret Life of Bees. I purchased it after reading the bee article in MJF. i was fasinated by the purple honey she described after the bees used pollen from a blackberry bush(?) or something. I finished the book last night. Reading this link is very interesting and informative. I'll have to seek out other types of honey than just the plain old Sue Bee!
farmgirl@heart
Longaberger Lover and all things antique |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11005 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
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Posted - Sep 12 2004 : 2:28:37 PM
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I thought of the bee tree from "Fried Green Tomatoes" when I read that too. I just love that movie and especially the book!!
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
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Eileen
True Blue Farmgirl
1197 Posts
Eileen
USA
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Posted - Sep 12 2004 : 3:13:50 PM
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Hi Kim
Maybe you have a local farmers market near you that would have fresh local honey. There is nothing like in! The flavors and variation of colors make it so very pretty and tasty. There are a few types of honey that are probably not as good flavored as others but in some areas of the country ones that are highly prized are not enjoyed by people in another part of the country. Everyone has different taste preferences. The local big bee specialist here sells many millions of pounds of blackberry honey to Japan.
Often fyi if you find a swarm of honey bees on your house or in a nearby area it is a good option to call in your local bee keeper, found in the phone book. They often will have ready hives for the purpose of removing swarms to a safe location, for the bees as well as the people, and will often do this for free or a small fee. Many times swarming comes as a result of someone who have hives in the area and one of them gets overcrouded or the queen becomes to old to keep up and should be replaced. A process that should be done every couple of years. Sometimes the hive does their own requeening but it is advisable to purchase a new queen from a qualified specialist.
Bees are so interresting!
Kathy,
I already do market my blackberries when I have time to pick them. I get $25.00 a gallon for the little vine blackberries, from the local restaraunts. They prefer the little vine ones to the big bush ones because the seeds are not so big and the pies are tastier. Sort of like the difference between an idaho mountain huckleberry and a domestic blueberry. A lot more tang and bang for the bite. Each pie takes 8 cups of the berries and they sell for around $18.00 each. I figured out that when I pick these berries I am getting about $4.00 per hour if the berries are not to difficult to get at. Sometimes I have to remove a lot of the big trellising vines to even get at these little diamonds. I am trying to figure out a way of trellising these particular vines so I can get to them more easily and a way to keep the big ones out of the area I want to keep exclusive to the little ones. Next year when things are more organised here I will have time to do the jams and jellies I love to make as well as do my own pies and other blackberry treats to sell at the farmers market. Blackberry truffles anybody?
Eileen
songbird |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
1597 Posts
Kim
Sycamore
Il
USA
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Posted - Sep 12 2004 : 4:53:05 PM
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Yummy!!! Blackberry Truffles sound good!
farmgirl@heart
Longaberger Lover and all things antique |
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Across the Fence: The Secret Life of -Farm Girl - Bee Keepers |
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The Secret Life of -Farm Girl - Bee Keepers
